Chosen Hill 38 Stow 10

It was a sweltering day at Chosen Hill as the boys took on Stow on the Wold, Stow kicked off, the ball was caught by our new find Josh Cannon, and lived up to his name he did as he shot up the wing, side stepping one player and handing off another before passing to the ever improving Chris Richie, who scored between the posts, Elliott converted to make it seven nil in 2 minutes, what a great start!
Chosen had a scrum on their 10 meter line and from the scrum George picked up drove on and from the ensuing ruck unleashed the backs and with some slick passing between Mikey Graves and Tim Rogers, gave Elliot the space to run in the second, which he almost converted from the touchline.
The backs were causing havoc at every opportunity, and one such move saw a long pass from Tim to Fin Mcbride who sprinted past his winger, cut inside, and released the ball to Joe Short, who is improving every game, to score, Elliot added the extras.
Chosen were good at the breakdown and their scrums looked solid, but it was from a lineout that the next try came, the ball expertly passed by Tim to Elliot giving motorlegs McBride the chance to change up a gear and GO! Which he did and scored, Elliot added the conversion to his tally.
The weather was so hot that a water break seemed sensible, it was after the water break that Stow seemed to move up a gear turning over some of Chosen’s ruck and maul ball, it was only some good tackling from Joey Mullis and Nick Bates that stemmed their flow, Chosen were living off scraps, but a lovely switch move from a scrum saw Elliot Creed scythe through the centre of the pitch to score, and he converted.
Half Time Chosen Hill 33 Stow 0
The second half Chosen were playing down the hill and had changed a few of the players around to let all the squad get a game. Stow coaches must have had a go at their forwards as they improved even more than after the water break, they were first to every ruck and even when Chosen were their first their counter rucking stole some of Chosen’s easy ball! It was from one of those strong rucks that saw their big prop disappear on the blind side to score, the conversion was missed.
The game spent most of it’s’ time in the midfield with Chosen trying to nullify Stows resurgence.
Chosen managed to gain some ground, win the ruck, and pass the ball out to Dan Robinson who took it back into the forward sucking the defence in and a quick ball released Josh left him to sprint in for his second.
Stow were playing well now their forward taking on ours and I would say they were edging it now as our body positions seemed wrong and the effort wasn’t there, maybe the weather, Chris Richie was still working as he appeared out the side of a ruck relieving the Stow pressure, but not even Chris could stop the next Stow try which came from a lineout, catch and drive, which they did very well.
The overall display from Chosen was good but they need to front up a bit in the forwards, keep that pressure on the whole game.
Thanks to Billy Bates for reffing.